Warning: reading this post may seriously damage your listening health

I learnt this week that in the original London cast of Les Miserables, Javert was played by Roger Allam. "Really?" I thought, "that means that he must be on the tape I've got."

I dug out the tape, which I haven't listened to in years. I listened. It is indeed Roger Allam, and he is several orders of magnitude better than Russell Crowe at singing Stars. Crowe is a fine actor, but you can't act when you're struggling to sing two right notes in a row, which is why the concept that "raw" singing is somehow "truer" than the singing of someone who can hold a tune is rubbish.

But I digress. Roger Allam played Javert. You can listen to him doing so on youtube here. But before you do so, I must give fair warning. You may, like me, find yourself listening to Stars as sung by First Officer Douglas Richardson showing off...